lutestring

PRONUNCIATION:

(LOOT-string)

MEANING:

noun: A glossy silk fabric.

ETYMOLOGY:

This fabric has nothing to do with a lute string. The word is a corruption
of French lustrine, from Italian lustrino, from Latin lustrare (to make
bright). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leuk- (light), which also
gave us lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate,
translucent, lux, lynx,
pellucid,
lucubrate,
limn,
levin, and
lea.
Earliest documented use: 1661.